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Druid
This article is a description of the character class '''Druid'. For a description of the role of druids within the lore of Warcraft, see Druid (lore). ''For related articles, see Category:Druids. Overview The '''Druid' is a hybrid class that combines the simple tasks of classes such as Priests, Warriors, Rogues, and Mages into one class, second best to those they imitate. Unlike other hybrid classes, a Druid does not fulfill several roles at once, but can choose to shift between roles using his forms. A Druid can perform any of four roles in a group but depending on how a druid has spent his/her Talent Points, they can specialize in one of those four roles. The core build of a druid consists of three monotarget magelike damage spells, one multiple-target magelike spell, three monotarget priestlike healing spells, one multiple-target healing spell, a Cat Form containing basic damaging special moves similar to a rogue, a Form capable of giving a Druid armor that competes with the Warrior class in plate armor, and a range of spells and forms usable outdoors/underwater or on beasts and dragonkin. *As a Balance Druid, Druids specialize in their assortment of damage spells and special abilities including an additional Moonkin Form. The enhancements to their balance spells in combination to their Moonkin Form gives them a unique flavor akin to that of an arcane warrior. *As a Feral Druid, the Druid will rely on Feral Forms to perform one of two roles, each form is enhanced by talents spent in the Feral tree. **By using Bear Form the druid can serve as a better tank with rage similar to a Warrior. **While in Cat Form the druid can do better melee DPS with energy similar to a Rogue. *A Restoration Druid can also perform as a healer, like a Priest, with some very nice heal-over-time spells, poison and curse cleansing spells, and a group heal at higher levels. Restoration Druids are considered the second-most powerful healers in the game. A Druid can play the part of any of the four primary party roles: tank, healer, melee-DPS and ranged-DPS. In any of these roles a properly specced Druid can fulfill the task almost as well as a member of a primary class in these roles. However, they accomplish the task differently from the primary classes. For example a restoration Druid heals comparable to a holy Priest, but their healing spells are focused over time. Similarly a feral Druid can generate threat and mitigate damage comparable to a Warrior. Because of their versatility, unique spells like Innervate and combat resurrection and one of the best buffs in the game (Mark of the Wild and later Gift of the Wild) Druids are usually welcome in any group. Druids, taken from the latest US server census, are currently among the least played classes, especially on the Horde. The reason can only be speculated upon. The fact that the Druid class is only available to two races does limit their numbers. The Druid community also brings up several other reasons, from the scarcity of non-healing itemization to the fact of the class being underpowered in PvP. It is also considered one of the more difficult classes to master and gear for because of its multiple roles. Others point out that compared to the other primary healer, the Priest, the Druid actually isn't that uncommon, especially when you take into account the limited race selection. Races The Druid class can be played by the following races: Alliance * Night Elves Horde * Tauren Weapons & Armor Druid]] Armor Druids are able to wear Cloth and Leather armor only. See Druid Sets for a list of druid armor sets. Weapons Druids can learn to fight with: *Staff *One-handed Mace *Two-handed Mace *Dagger *Fist weapon Depending on race, druids have different starting weapons: * Night Elf druids start out being able to use staves and daggers; * Tauren druids start out with staves and one-handed maces. Both races can later pay a Trainer to teach them how to use fist weapons, both kinds of maces and daggers. *Druids can never use shields. This is most likely because of the Druid class's bear form; the Dire Bear form in particular increases armor by 360%. With a 2000AC shield, for example, this would mean 9200AC from a shield, causing a massive imbalance in favor of the druid. *Druids can never learn how to dual wield. This means you can only use a weapon in your main hand (e.g. If you pay to learn fist-weapons, you can use right-handed brass knuckles, but not left-handed (off-hand) brass knuckles.). "Held in off-hand" items can still be used if the Druid uses a one-handed weapon. It should be noted that there is currently only one offhand in the game that increases a feral druid's damage, a +8 to all stats blue named Tome of Knowledge. Abilities Through the use of various abilities and spells, the Druid can perform several roles in any group, including healing, nuking, tanking, and melee DPS. Forms The Druid's most notable ability is shapeshifting into different forms. Bear Form and Aquatic Form are obtained by doing Druid Quests. The other forms are purchased from a class trainer. For a full list of Druid Feral Form abilities see Druid Abilities. The act of shapeshifting into or out of any form removes most movement slowing or preventing effects. While shapeshifted into Bear, Aquatic, Cat, Travel or Dire Bear form: *The Druid cannot be polymorphed *The Druid is considered a beast. Spells and abilities which can only be used on humanoids will not work against a shapeshifted druid and spells and abilities which work on beasts (such as Hibernate) will work on them. *The Druid may only use equipped items with "Use:" such as trinkets. Bag items cannot be used. In Bear, Dire Bear and Cat form, the following are also true: *The druid is immune to mana-reducing abilities such as Viper Sting and Mana Burn. Mana regeneration still continues at normal rate. *Items with a "Chance on hit" portion and "Chance on hit" enchants such as Enchant Weapon - Crusader and Enchant Weapon - Lifestealing will not activate. *Weapon DPS and weapon +damage enchants are not used. The weapon damage bonus from the Might of Cenarius ring does work, however. There is also a Druid Quests page with an outline for the level 10 (Bear) and level 16 (Aquatic) quests. Bear Form The first shapeshift form that can be obtained is the Bear Form (with abilities similar to Warriors) at level 10. Bear Form is the Druid tanking form. Bear Form increases armor contribution from items by 180% while also increasing attack power and health by a set amount depending on level. Aquatic Form Aquatic form, the first of the travel forms allows for underwater breathing and faster swim speed and is acquired through a quest at level 16. Looks similar to a sea lion. Swim speed is increased from the standard 50% of running speed to 100% of running speed. Form can't be used outside of water. Useful to escape an enemy player, since few classes other than Druid can match the same speed on water. Cat Form The Cat Form (with abilities similar to Rogues) becomes available through trainer at level 20. The Druid can Prowl in Cat Form which is identical to Stealth. Base travel speed in Cat form can be increased by the Feline Swiftness talent in Feral Combat to a potential speed of 130% outdoors. It can also reach a potential speed of 160% (indoors and out) for 15 seconds with the Dash skill. It's important to note that the speed boosts from Feline Swiftness and Dash do not stack. Travel Form Travel form, giving a 40% bonus to speed, becomes available through trainer at level 30. Travel form can only be used outdoors. This is specially useful in PvP, since it is an instant cast, and can easily put distance between the Druid and the enemy, be it to heal, or simply escape. Dire Bear Form At level 40, Druids can get an improved bear form, the Dire Bear form, increasing attack power by 120, armor contribution from items by 360%, and health by 1240 at level 60. This can be thought of as the equivalent of warriors gaining the ability to wear plate armor at level 40. Moonkin Form Moonkin Form is available to Druids who spend 31 point in Balance Talents, which is level 40 at the earliest. It increases armor by 360%, and increases the casting critical strike chance of nearby party members by 3%. The Druid can only cast Balance spells in this form. Moonkin Druids generally play the ranged DPS role of a Mage, but are handicapped by their usually low mana. However, they can regenerate it due to the Druid's naturally high spirit. Also, as of Patch 1.11 Innervate is available for Druids level 40 and above, mitigating the handicap. (However, a Druid cannot use Innervate in Moonkin form. A Moonkin user must shift out to use it.) Unlike most other forms, a Druid in Moonkin Form is still considered a humanoid and can use items and have humanoid-specific abilities used on him. There are 2 basic types of Moonkin Druid: *Featherkin The Featherkin is a Moonkin Druid who acquires light leather and cloth gear usually reserved for mages, going for the Intellect and +Damage/Healing stats. The cloth armor they wear is generally compensated for by the +360% armor gain. As opposed to the Panzerkin, they can often hold their own in PvE, due to the fact that they are able to gain more Mana regenerating items and sheer +Damage. High end PvE moonkin are almost always this type of Moonkin. Despite popular opinion, it must be remembered that Moonkin of this type do not wear entirely Cloth armor, wearing what epic +damage leather they can, and filling in the gaps where no epic leather is available with cloth. *Panzerkin "Panzerkins" are Druids who go after the rare and difficult-to-find leather caster items. The lack of Balance Druid-emphasized armor severely limits their selection, but those who work at it come out as a heavily-armored, high-dps, high-crit Mage type. These are especially good in PvP as their high crit/damage stats work to make battles short, and the +360% armor gain can have some Moonkins' armor on par with pre-Tier 1 geared warriors. Though currently they are limited in the choice of leather armors, making up the fact that they can lack against epic geared opponents, The Panzerkin will also lack in PvE, however. Flight Form Available at level 68 once Burning Crusade is released, the druid will be transformed into a bird and be able to fly at the speed of a "normal" flying mount (60%). It is only usable within Outland and only useable outside combat. Tree of Life Form This form will be available in the expansion, after the druid spends 40 points in the Restoration talent tree. It increases healing by 25% of the total spirit to all party members within 40 yards, reduces movement speed by 20% and only allows heal-over-time spells (Rejuvenation and Regrowth) and swiftmend to be cast, but the mana cost is reduced by 20%. Spells In addition to healing spells, Druids also have the best buffs in the game. They also have some limited damage spells, making them (if properly geared and with proper talent point allocation) not as powerful and less versatile than a Mage or Warlock for example. See the Druid abilities page for further details. Talents Druid Talents are split into three categories: * Balance - Focus on Damage Spells to make the druid an efficient DPSer. * Feral Combat - Focus on using the druid forms (Cat Form, Bear Form, Dire Bear Form) in the aspects of tanking (Bear/Dire Bear Form) and Damage dealing (Cat Form). * Restoration - Focus on Healing Spells to make the druid an efficient healer. Its important to note that the Druid talent trees are designed to alter all aspects of the druid. A few Feral Combat talents modify maximum mana (balance and healing). Also, some Balance talents modify cost of healing spells, as well as melee damage dealing and melee clearcasting talent. Finally, some Restoration talents modify mana regeneration during casting (balance) and talents to give the druid rage/energy when he switches into either Cat or Bear Form. There are good talent calculators that can be found here: WoWhead Talent Calculator (fast), Official Blizzard site, Panda Hideout, WoW Vault, ThottBot and Merciless. See the Druid Talents and Druid Talent Analysis pages for further details. End-Game Expectations Blizzard's itemization for the end-game focuses primarily around healing, and regardless of talent point distribution you will likely primarily be healing your party, decursing, and keeping Mark and/or Gift of the Wild on them. Given the correct gear Feral druids are viable maintanks/offtanks for many encounters and can fill DPS roles also. However, both Cat and Bear form viability decreases drastically the further in end game raids the player goes, as the lack of scaling greatly lowers the form's strength. Balance druids may find their aura useful to Mages or Paladins as well as filling a secondary healing role. For certain encounters such as Garr and for the Sons of Flame during Ragnaros druids may be required to off tank. In Zul'Gurub you will usually be called on to Hibernate creatures for Crowd Control, abolish poison and heal regardless of talents. Feral druids can contribute useful DPS to fights that require a quick kill, and properly geared make an excellent choice as MT for Gahz'ranka (feral charge), and Jin'do the Hexxer (immune to polymorph). You will be the primary form of Crowd Control in AQ, and again as feral may serve as an offtank, DPS or healer, depending on group composition. As an added example, Druids are fairly useful in Blackwing Lair, during the Razorgore fight to hibernate the Dragonkin adds. Further Information See Starting a Druid for some advice when starting out and Druid Tactics for more advanced topics. See Also *Druid *Druid Forms *Druid Spells and Abilities *Druid Talent Analysis *Druid Tactics *Druids as Tank *Druid Quests *Alamo *The druid guide Useful starters guide to druids *Druid Q&A - FAQ for new players (very valuable!) *Extensive Guide to Bear Tanking - Temporary Google Cache of the guide *Tangedyn's Excellent Druid Resources Guides for feral druids are especially well thought out. *Burning Crusade Druid Talent Preview (subject to change before release) *Burning Crusade Druid Spell Preview (subject to change before release) ---- Category:Classes Druid Category:Night Elves Category:Tauren Category:Classes Category:Alliance classes Category:Horde classes